Michele Morrow

Early life

Morrow comes from a military family, her maternal grandfather was a decorated veteran who served in the United States Army Air Corps during World War II. Her mother and father met while serving in the United States Air Force, and moved to Spokane, Washington where Morrow grew up with her younger sister. She is of Italian, Croatian, Dutch, and Irish descent. Morrow’s interest in performing arts began at the early age of seven when she would organize plays with other kids in her neighborhood, acted in school performances, and played piano. Morrow moved to Seattle, Washington to attend the University of Washington, where she obtained a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Drama. After graduating college she moved to Los Angeles, California.

Career

Within months after her move to Los Angeles, Morrow booked her first lead role in the horror movie genre, which lead to over a dozen horror genre and indie film titles from 2000 to 2009. During this time she took courses at several acting studios including, Howard Fine Acting Studio, Ivana Chubbuck Studio, Lesly Kahn and Company, and The Second City.

Film

Morrow’s first lead role was Violence Onelove in Slaughterhouse of the Rising Sun, a 1970s style horror film. In 2007, Morrow starred as Claire in The Seer, an Italian film, which was shot on location in Sardinia, Italy, and co-starred Bella Thorne, who played a younger version of Morrow’s role. Morrow went on to star in the 2009 slasher, Basement Jack, co-starring scream queen, Lynn Lowry. In 2009, Morrow played the role of Kerra in the ensemble cast of Bled. In 2010, Morrow played the supporting role of Sezah in Ashley’s Ashes.

Television

Morrow has appeared as a co-star on television series The Young and the Restless, and Alias. In 2014 she appeared as a guest star in the Syfy reality series, Heroes of Cosplay, alongside Host and Judge Yaya Han.

Morrow co-hosted the BlizzCon Virtual Ticket on DirectTV in 2014 with co-host Geoff Keighley and 2015 with co-hosts Alex Albrecht, Malik Forté and stage host Wil Wheaton, and recently confirmed she will be returning for 2016. The 2-day live broadcast included interviews with game developers, game designers, and executives from Blizzard Entertainment including CEO and Co-Founder Mike Morhaime, SVP Chris Metzen, and CBDO and Co-Founder Frank Pearce.

In 2015, she hosted "the first live collegiate e-sports event" to air on national television for Heroes of the Dorm on ESPN by Blizzard Entertainment’s game, Heroes of the Storm. "The final match was set to be shown live on ESPN 2, the first time an esport has ever been broadcast on a major American television network, and the first place prize was massive—free tuition for the rest of the winning team's college career".

Webseries & digital media

From 2009 to 2011, Morrow created Foam Weapon League, where she performed and produced three live events in Los Angeles.

Beginning in 2012, Morrow hosted weekly shows on App Attack (mobile app reviews) and Chicks With Joysticks (gaming news) both on BiteSize TV, where she also hosted shows starring; Larry King and his wife Shawn Southwick, and Melissa Rivers. She also co-created the show Chaotic Awesome, (variety talk show) notable guests on the program include; Chris Hardwick, Grant Imahara, Randy Pitchford, and Justin Willman.

On April 2014, Michele appeared as a host on Hollywood Goes Green, a 12-hour, Live Earth Day Marathon with Ed Begley, Jr..

Morrow hosted several live video-game industry events in 2014 for 2K Games at both PAX East (Boston, MA) and PAX Prime (Seattle, WA), as well as NVidia's Game24 event, a combination of local events worldwide, including Los Angeles, Shanghai, Stockholm, and Chicago.

As herself, Morrow appeared in online shows produced by Maker Studios, including; Ninja Sex Party, Table Flip, and Multiplayer.

She has hosted for Nerdist Industries on several occasions, including; hosting The Doctor Who Companion, San Diego Comic-Con panels, and the Upright Citizen’s Brigade co-presentation of Controller Freaks.

From 2014-2016, Morrow created and hosted an online show called Massive which aired weekly on both Nerdist and Geek & Sundry's Twitch programming.

In 2015, Morrow began hosting Super-Fan Builds for Defy Media on Verizon Go90, a series where builders create unique, one-of-a-kind items for the chosen “Super-Fan”.

Morrow hosted Legendary Digital’s Warcraft IRL: Capture the Flag, and moderated a live broadcast of the Warcraft Movie Panel at PAX East with Duncan Jones and Rob Kazinsky for a participatory audience of twenty thousand.

On May 22, 2016, Morrow hosted the Overwatch Launch Celebration presented by Coke eSports in movie theaters across the United States and Europe. On June 10, 2016, Morrow hosted the live Red Carpet World Premiere of Warcraft by Universal Pictures, with co-host Jesse Cox.

In 2016, Morrow served as executive producer and host of ENDGAME, a weekly online show for Lionsgate’s Comic-Con HQ. She co-hosted the show with Khail Anonymous and produced with Adam Sessler and Neil Mandt.

Since 2016, Morrow hosts Bleacher Report’s daily eSports news show, eStream with co-host Malik Forté.

Writer

From 2011 to 2014 Morrow was the first nerd-centric columnist for Zooey Deschanel's female-centric blog, HelloGiggles, which was named among the top 100 websites for females in 2012 by Forbes.com.

Beginning in 2012, Morrow was the head writer for Chaotic Awesome and she wrote all episodes for weekly shows on App Attack, both shows aired on BiteSize TV.

In October 2012, Morrow's writing was published in the rebooted horror magazine, Cinefantastique (CFQ), for a zombie special issue. Morrow's article highlighted the most notable zombie video games ever made, along with her top zombie app recommendations.

Morrow has been a contributing writer for Nerdist. Her articles have covered Blizzard’s MMORPG World of Warcraft, the official launch of Nerdist' Twitch Channel, and interviewed John Leguizamo for his role as “Javier” in Kick Ass 2.

Other work

In 2015, Morrow created a podcast series titled Status Effect with Sideshow Network, which is co-hosted by Morrow and Malik Forté, where they “invite guests into their gaming hub world at the Hollywood Improv for an honest conversation about life, technology, triumphs and career trials within the rapidly growing landscape of video games”. There have been many notable guests on the show including Game Grumps, Jesse Cox, and Stephen Kramer Glickman of The Night Time Show.

She has voiced a number of characters for different video games, including; Embers of War as Gwen, Hearthstone as Alleria Windrunner, and Z. Year One as their Lead Female voices. She has also voiced characters on Digibirds, a children’s YouTube Series.

At the 2015 Geekie Awards, Morrow presented the award for best short film with Dante Bosco.

Morrow has appeared in commercials for both Microsoft and Apple.

Charity work

Morrow has been a spokeswoman for GameChanger Charity and has donated her time to host and create memorable events for children in need. She has also served as a member of their board of advisers during 2014.

In 2015, Morrow played in the annual tournament by Extra Life United. She has also supported Child’s Play.

Personal life

Morrow currently lives in West Hollywood, California, with her fiancé, Michael Weitzman. Morrow is also an accomplished artist, creating original works of art under the title “Recycled Rock”. Her commissioned pieces have been featured at Billboard in NYC, Ryan Seacrest's offices in Los Angeles, and owned by a member of the Dave Matthews Band.

In 2007, Morrow was in a traumatic accident that left her in a neck brace for nearly a year, and was eventually diagnosed with thoracic outlet syndrome, which resulted in a partial removal of a rib.

Morrow has been gaming since the age of five when her parents came home with a Commodore 64. She continued through her adult life, but picked up serious interest again after her accident.

Morrow is an outspoken community member, guild and raid leader in popular MMORPG, World of Warcraft. In 2012, Morrow was honored with an NPC in World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria named "Mei Chele", who can be found on The Wandering Isle in a house with her cats Azrael and Samus Aran. In 2014, Morrow was honored with another NPC in the game, a Horde garrison follower named "Mychele Morrowsong". Morrow’s favorite games include Myst, The Legend of Zelda, Hearthstone, God of War II, World of Warcraft and Borderlands 2.